Rugby player paralysed on lads holiday to Portugal after misjudging sea dive

Henry's life was changed forever following the accident (Image: Instagram)

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He told the Mirror Online : "I opened my eyes to find I was face down, floating in the sea with my arms hanging lifeless in front of me, not being able to move anything from my neck down.

"Never in my life have I been so scared of anything until that moment when I was surrounded by the silence of the sea piercing my ears, utterly helpless, thinking this was it, what am I meant to do to save myself."

Thankfully, one of Henry's friends was close by and dragged him to the beach.

Waiting on the sand were two ex- rugby coaches who had first aid training and tried to get him to stay calm.

Heartbreakingly, one of Henry's first thoughts was not for himself but for his friends and the holiday he felt he had ruined.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance and then airlifted to a bigger hospital in Lisbon, Portugal.

X-Rays were taken and medics put5 screws into each side of Henry's head so a pulley system could be attached with weights hanging off it.

He had severely dislocated his neck and doctors hoped the weights would stretch his neck back into place.

But there was a problem - because he had been such an accomplished sportsman, Henry, from Hertfordshire, had too much muscle in his back and neck and the weights had no impact.

Henry's determination has won him an army of fans (Image: henryfraser0/Instagram)

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By now, Henry's parents had flown to Portugal and were keeping a 24 hour vigil by his bedside.

The 17-year-old first contracted pneumonia and then MRSA but there was more bad news to come.

Henry was also suffering from heart failure and had to have a pacemaker fitted to try to regulate his heart beat.

He said: "A mixture of the illnesses and sheer panic of my situation meant that I nearly never slept as the pain and fear were all too much and it was at this time that I had many dark thoughts running through my head but when I look back at it I regret ever thinking that way."

Henry was on a lads holiday when tragedy struck (Image: henryfraser0/Instagram)

Two operations followed to wire his spine back into alignment and he was finally able to fly home to the UK.

Henry said: "My time in Portugal is in memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life, as was a time when I was told my spinal cord had been totally severed and my condition would not improve from then, but I can look back now and see that that was one of the things that drove me on through everything.

"It was also the most emotional time of my life and I would not have been able to get through it if I did not have my parents there by my side or without a couple of cards sent to me by the families of the boys who were with me on holiday."

Henry's first memories of being back in the UK were the black ceiling of the intensive care unit that would be his home for the next few weeks.

He suffered several brutal flare ups of MRSA and every time he was due to be moved to the acute ward, seemed to suffer another set back.

Henry admits the night times were the worst as he couldn't stop his thoughts and experienced unnerving dreams.

Once again surrounded by his family, with his brother visiting every weekend after studying at university, Henry was finally moved out of ICU two weeks later.

JK Rowling is among Henry's admirers (Image: henryfraser0/Instagram)

On the acute ward he also finally had a window and could see daylight for the first time in weeks.

Henry said: "We could open a window and let fresh air into the room, it felt so great. I could finally breath it in, as much as I could whilst still being on a ventilator."

And then came a real moment of progression, Henry's feeding tube was removed and he was able to eat some pureed food.

Determined to get out of hospital as soon as possible, he also started chest physio so his ventilator could be removed.

But there was one final hurdle the teenager had not had to face - he hadn't seen how he now looked.